After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, scripture tells us they heard God walking in the garden and they hid. “But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.'” — Genesis 3:9-10
They didn’t stop believing in God. They didn’t walk away from the relationship entirely. They just couldn’t bear to be fully seen in their current state. So they hid behind fig leaves and hoped for the best.
Sound familiar?
We do the same thing. Maybe not with fig leaves, but with busyness. With perfectionism. With “I’m not ready yet.” With the polished version of ourselves we present to the world while the real version stays tucked safely out of sight.
The hiding feels protective. But it costs us something we can’t afford to lose.
Jonah’s Version of Hiding
Jonah is one of my favorite examples of hiding — because his hiding didn’t look like hiding at first glance.
God gave Jonah a clear assignment. “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it.” — Jonah 1:2. Simple enough. Direct enough. And Jonah’s response? “But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.” — Jonah 1:3
He didn’t sit still. He didn’t freeze. He found a ship, paid his fare, and went the opposite direction. His hiding looked like movement. Like decision-making. Like a man who knew exactly where he was going.
But he was running.
I think about how often our hiding looks exactly like that. We’re not doing nothing, we’re doing plenty. We’re busy. We’re planning. We’re preparing. We’re working hard on things that feel productive and important.
But somewhere underneath all of it, there’s an assignment we haven’t said yes to. A calling we keep circling but never landing on. A version of ourselves we haven’t been willing to fully show up as yet.
And so we stay in motion, heading in a direction that feels safer than the one God pointed us toward.
What Are We Really Hiding?
For some of us it’s the dream. The business we’ve been thinking about for years that we’ve never told anyone because saying it out loud makes it real, and real things can fail.
For some of us it’s the calling. The sense that God has put something specific in us that we’re supposed to do with our lives, but we’re not sure we’re qualified, not sure we’re ready, not sure we won’t look foolish if we try and fall short.
For some of us it’s simply the real version of who we are. The unpolished, still-in-process, full of questions person that lives underneath the version we present to the world.
And here’s what I’ve come to understand after years of doing my own hiding and sitting with others who were doing theirs:
The very thing we’re hiding is usually the thing God wants to use.
Not the cleaned-up version. Not the version that has all the answers. The real one. The one with the scars and the questions and the dream that won’t go away no matter how many times we push it to the back of the closet.
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” — Ephesians 2:10
Those works were prepared for the real you. Not the presentable version. The real one.
God Keeps Showing Up
Here’s what strikes me most about both Adam and Jonah:
God didn’t give up on them.
He didn’t find someone else to walk in the garden with. He didn’t reassign Nineveh to a more willing prophet. He showed up. He pursued. He stayed with the assignment and with the person He’d given it to, even when that person was hiding.
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” — Psalm 139:7-8
You can book passage on a ship going the wrong direction. You can hide behind a perfectly curated version of yourself. You can keep the dream tucked away where no one can see it.
But God already sees it. He already sees you, the real you, the hiding you, the not-sure-I’m-ready-yet you.
And He hasn’t changed His mind about what He put in you.
It’s Time to Come Out
I’m not talking about having it all together before you show up. I’m not talking about launching before you’re ready or pretending the fear isn’t real.
I’m talking about something smaller than that, and harder than that.
Just stop hiding from God.
Not from the world yet. Not from your audience or your community or the people who might judge you if you try and fall short.
Just with God first.
Let Him see the real version. The dream you’ve been afraid to say out loud. The calling you’ve been circling for years. The you that exists underneath all the tidying up.
Because here’s what I’ve found: the moment you stop hiding from Him is usually the moment everything starts to shift.
The assignment is still yours. The calling didn’t expire while you were hiding.
He’s still asking the same question He asked in the garden:
Where are you?
And He already knows the answer. He’s just waiting for you to come out.
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